Challenging Roe ... in courtWhen does life begin? That has been the fundamental question in the debate over abortion for years and a topic of considerable discussion in the state Legislature this session. It is key to a bill by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, whose measure proposes to define life as beginning when a fetal heartbeat can be detected and make abortion illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy, which generally is the point doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat using u...

The kindness of strangersI read a letter to the editor in a newspaper the other day. The woman who wrote it had been standing in line at a dollar store with her two young daughters. She checked out and discovered there was less money on her debit card than she had thought. She couldn’t pay. And the guy behind her covered it for her, about $20 worth. The woman wrote the letter to the editor because she wanted people to know that there were good hearts in her town. And ...

Cultural deviancy, not gunsThere’s a story told about a Paris chief of police who was called to a department store to stop a burglary in progress. Upon his arrival, he reconnoitered the situation and ordered his men to surround the entrances of the building next door. When questioned about his actions, he replied that he didn’t have enough men to cover the department store’s many entrances but he did have enough for the building next door. Let’s see whether there are si...

Another two weeks, another $32 billionThis past two weeks, the national debt grew by $32 billion – more than $2 billion a day – and Congress and the White House didn’t do much about it. Instead, this is what happened. On Jan. 29, the Senate followed the House’s lead and voted to provide what eventually will be more than $50 billion to pay for Hurricane Sandy relief. It also voted against an amendment that would offset the costs for that relief by cutting other areas over the next ...

It doesn’t rain on Mike at the ballyardIt is cool this weekend in Russellville, but not so cold. In the Northeast, places like Boston have a couple feet of new snow covering their world. While the Arkansas River Valley isn’t considered to be a loop in the Sun Belt, our winter hasn’t been so bad, at least so far. I keep reminding myself it is still just the middle of February. My young bride, Rosemary, likes to remind me we’ve seen snow in Arkansas at Easter. I just checked, and Eas...

The heart attackJanuary was a big month for me. It actually started in December and seeped over into February. I spent a few weeks helping to care for my father who was very ill, in fact near death from the combined effects of lung cancer, radiation of the brain, and chemotherapy. I officiated the funerals of a close family friend, my father, and my father’s sister. I type this with an oxygen sensor on my hand while sitting in a Cardiac Care Unit. On February...

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Pastor Steve EllisonThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

The prodigal sonThe story of the Prodigal Son starting Luke 15 with verse 17: And He said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.” When the son asked for his inheritance, he was actually saying to his father: you are dead to me. A couple of things about the customs of that time: first, the older son got two thirds and the younger son got one third. If the son tried to sell the la...

Why Little Rock isn’t yet like WashingtonWe’re one month into the era of divided government in Arkansas, where the Legislature is controlled by Republicans and the Governor’s Mansion by Democrats. So far, the partisan temperature remains at a comfortable level – warm enough to allow a vigorous debate and keep things moving, but not so hot as to cause an engine shutdown like in Washington, D.C. We’ve seen competing beliefs on charter schools and school choice. We’ve seen legislators p...

Salt of the earth peopleIf we expect less than the best in anything, that is exactly what we will get a high percentage of the time. Within this simple concept lies the key to greatness for an individual, a family, a team or even a nation. To say it one more time, as simply as I know how, we get what we expect most of the time. A good example of this happened during the 2012 college football season. The Ohio State Buckeyes were on NCAA probation and were not eligible...

Putting armed guards in schools doesn’t address cause of problemThe Arkansas Legislature’s only answer to dealing with the mass shootings plaguing our nation and especially its public schools is to arm the potential victims. That is in line with the catch phrase of National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” If you put good guys with guns in the schools, churches, movie theaters, etc., maybe they’ll be able t...

Put down the gunPoliticians, lay down your firearms. No, that’s not a mandate for candidates and officeholders to get rid of their guns. Rather, it’s a plea for them to quit posing with them in attempts to show where they stand on gun rights or posturing on gun rights in other ways. Enough already! We’ve seen examples aplenty — most recently the photo of President Obama skeet shooting at Camp David, released in response to an interview he did with The New Rep...

The power of your mindJournaling is much more than just jotting down a few thoughts. It is the art of self-exploration, introspection, stress reduction and processing your feelings. It stimulates your brain and helps you work through issues that you present while you engage in writing. Journaling has been proven to decrease certain health conditions, improve cognitive functioning and help strengthen the immune system. Journaling is a way for people to process their...

$6 billion scamWhile all the figures aren’t in and almost certainly never will be, the Center for Responsive Politics has estimated that roughly $6 billion was spent on the 2012 election, including $2 billion on the presidential contest and something on the order of $4 billion on congressional and state races. This gives us, I suppose, the best government money can buy — which is certainly not the best we could have. When I say what was spent, what I really ...

Health strategy doesn’t add up to a win“More talk, no deal” was The Wall Street Journal’s headline on Thursday’s Blair House health care summit. “After summit flop, Democrats prepare to go it alone on Obamacare,” proclaimed the headline here at The Washington Examiner. These were appropriate verdicts if you viewed the summit as an attempt to reach bipartisan agreement or even a limited consensus. But that of course was not why Barack Obama convened this unique colloquy. He did so a...

County schools facing tough challengeThe good folks in the Western Yell County School District are looking at some tough times. The district is facing hard financial times, dropping enrollment and a total lack of revenue streams. The end result is that the district, which has about 430 students, will likely close its doors next year. Western Yell County officials are meeting with bordering school districts looking for someone to annex their district before the state steps in and ...

The Weekly Post: Poetry is about asking the right questionsFor those of you that don’t know, in addition to writing for The Courier, I also teach composition at Arkansas Tech, a job I’ve found much more enjoyable than frustrating. Juggling the two can sometimes be hectic, but we’re three weeks into the spring semester and I’m still standing. Small victories, right? To open the semester, I’ve been charged with the task of trying to make my students appreciate poetry, a type of literature that is especi...

Owe nothing but loveWhen the Holy Spirit finished the passage in which He told us how to measure our submission to God, He turned His attention to love. Romans 13:8-10 says, Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL L...

Good news: Highway deaths decline againWant to read some good news? The roads are much, much safer than they used to be. How much safer? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 32,367 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2011 – the fewest since 1949, when far fewer Americans were driving far fewer miles. During the late 1960s through the early 1980s, around 50,000 died on the roads each year. More than 1,000 fewer passenger car occupants died in 2011 th...

In the fire of adversityHave you ever faced any real adversity in your life? If you have, then I invite you to come along with me as I share some thoughts that may help you in some way, and may even help you gain perspective. First, let’s make sure we are speaking the same language. The dictionary says that adversity is “A condition of hardship or affliction.” At this point it might help if I rephrase that first question. Have you ever, or are you now, facing some ty...

Scatter shooting while thinking of sales tax, Bill and a nice personRussellville Mayor Bill Eaton and a number of other city and civic leaders in Russellville will talk a lot in the coming months about renewing a 1-cent sales tax that is used for various projects around the city, including roads and drainage. The would be a continuation of an existing 1-cent sales tax the city has collected for the past five years. The 1-cent sales tax initiative is set to expire at the end of this year. If approved by voters,...